Roberto Mancini left frustrated by Man City’s sudden spending cut

Manchester City manager
Roberto Mancini has again vented his frustration at the club’s reluctance to strengthen his squad as they bid to retain the Premier League title.

Man City is facing new budget restrictions and Mancini isn’t happy about it (Picture: AP)

The Italian last month pointed the finger at sporting director Brian Marwood for the club’s failure to capture targets such as last season’s Premier League top scorer Robin van Persie or Eden Hazard, who eventually joined Chelsea.

And a split in the City hierarchy was laid bare today as Mancini once more singled out Marwood as the man frustrating his on-field vision.

Despite the club being backed by oil -rich billionaire Sheikh Mansour, Mancini admitted he has given up on signing Van Persie, while other targets, including Liverpool’s Daniel Agger and Roma’s Daniele de Rossi, have also failed to materialise.

However, Marwood is having to juggle the demands of meeting Uefa’s financial fair play regulations.

From next season, Uefa will be able to ban clubs whose losses exceed set limits from European competitions such as the Champions League.

Given City’s enormous spending in previous years they are already in grave danger of falling foul of these sanctions – and with high earners such as Emmanuel Adebayor proving hard to shift, Marwood is understood to be blocking any further spending.

Although Mancini did his best to avoid the issue ahead of Sunday’s Community Shield against Chelsea at Wembley, his irritation eventually got the better of him.

‘I am not happy,’ said Mancini when asked if he was content with City’s transfer business this summer.

‘But I won’t say anything at the moment. For this, you should talk to Brian Marwood, not me. I am not the sporting director. I can’t say anything about the players.

‘It is my opinion that we have a good team. But we built this team two years ago and you need to continue to improve in every way.’